It’s starting to look like Miguel Angel Cotto is the “wild card” in the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao Super Bout deck. The newly revived Boricua Bomber, who convicingly dominated Antonio “Clean Hands” Margarito in their Dec. 3 Madison Square Garden revenge bout. keeps saying he will remain with promoter Bob Arum and Top Rank. But, as the Cotto camp freely admits, the Caguas resident’s contractual obligation to Team Arum expires on the final day of 2011. Given this opening, Arum’s pals at Golden Boy are making a substantial, multibout offer to Cotto with the real carrot being a lucrative bout against unbeaten Mayweather. This may lead to jokers accusing Floyd of fighting Pacquiao “leftovers,” but so be it. Certainly, Cotto-Mayweather would take priority over other foes who Oscar de la Hoya’s outfit (Canelo Alvarez and James Kirkland) could deliver for the Puerto Rican superstar. As for the Golden Boys “Cinco de Mayo” date in Las Vegas, the Goldens would load the undercard with Mexicans, possibly including ginger-haired Alvarez to retain a South of the Border holiday feel. If Cotto sticks with TR, this is all academic but, with baseball’s free agent market in full swing, Cotto is boxing’s leading free agent. Arum, who turned age 80 Thursday, may be waiting for some New Year’s Eve news from the Cotto camp. The guess is that Cotto is leaning towards retaining TR but how much money will GBP stack up to lure his away? Insert your guess here.
